This June we went to the regional conference in Mindanao. Holly’s
parents were visiting and as they had worked for in Mindanao for 16 years they
came with us. It was encouraging to hear about the different things God been
doing in the tribal works there.
In our training, the process of planting a church is laid
out quite neatly, but we found in the real world “neat” is rarely how things happen.
Various additions to the work of church-planting in the locations we heard
about were a tapping a spring for clean water to help with the almost fatal
illness many kids are getting, teaching the people to raise pigs as a source of
protein and income, setting up and running a school for the local kids, and
even beginning a pastoral training center to train the pastors already working
locally. Some of the missionaries are almost done with the translation of the
entire Bible! To translate the New Testament alone can take upwards of 25
years.
In almost every situation the missionaries did not start out
with these projects as part of their church-planting goals. Rather they saw
needs and have worked to assist the community. The best part of all these
projects is that it has not just helped the people socially and economically,
but these projects have served to advance the church planting work. It was the
practical outworking of loving people with Christ’s love by meeting their
physical needs.
Many of these missionaries have been working in these areas
for 20-30 years and have thriving churches whose members are reaching out to
other areas. Hearing the other missionaries talk about what is going on reinforced
the power of the Gospel and the power of showing people that you genuinely
care.
While we don’t yet know if we will end up working in
Mindanao or Northern Luzon in the future, it was a blessing to get to know some
of our coworkers. Wherever we end up, hopefully we can learn from their example
and see the Gospel take root in the lives of more Filipinos…even if we don’t necessarily
do things in the “right order.”
